Seamus Heaney in His Own Words

Irish poet, playwright, and translator Seamus Heaney passed away on Friday, August 30. He was a Nobel Prize winning poet, and he won the Pen Translation Prize for his famous translation of Beowulf. He is considered to be the most important Irish poet since Yeats, and sales of his books are said to make up 2/3 of all sales by living poets in the UK. He’ll leave quite a gap in the literary landscape. Thankfully, he wasn’t afraid of the camera, so here he is, in his own words.

“Scaffolding”

For more Seamus Heaney and other poetry readings by Faber & Faber authors, visit their YouTube Channel.

“Digging”

“St. Kevin and the Blackbird”

“The Annals Say”

Celebrating when Ireland took its place among the nations of the world…

“In the Attic” and “A Kite for Aibhín”

Readings from the Griffin Poetry Prize Ceremony

1995 Nobel Lecture

And if you’re fascinated by the way that people annotate poetry as they read, like I am, you might find videos like this one (there are more!) that takes you through the annotation of poems like Heaney’s “Punishment.”